Hunt: Showdown has been in development for years, and has gone through significant changes since it was first shown at E3 2014. It began as somewhat of a Left 4 Dead clone, as teams of players wandered through levels and mowed down hordes of zombies. It has since evolved into a horrifying, team-based shooter that drew serious acclaim at this year’s E3 for its beautiful visuals and intense gameplay. Developer Crytek has released the game’s first developer diary, talking about the evolution of Hunt: Showdown and what players can expect when they get their hands on this great-looking game:

The main shakeup seems to have occurred when Crytek transferred development from their Austin studio to their home base in Frankfurt. The team was able to capitalize on some of the new trends in gaming and transform Hunt: Showdown into the intense looking game it has become.

In Hunt: Showdown, multiple teams of two are dropped into an open environment filled with monsters. Each team is hunting for a central “boss” enemy of the map, and they have to track it down while avoiding danger from AI enemies and the other teams lurking around the map. After tracking and finding the boss, teams need to kill it, send it to hell, and escape the map with the “trophy” from that creature. Player skills and equipment carry over from map to map, and death is permanent: one bad move can mean hours with a favorite character are instantly wiped out. As the one developer stresses in the video: “Reckless players are dead players.”

There is no release date yet for Hunt: Showdown, but it looks like a promising combination of horror and the intense, heart-pounding excitement of Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds. Stay tuned for more details on Crytek’s shooter as they become available. In the meantime, there are plenty of clips of that horrifying spider boss skittering around.

Jordan has been gaming and geeking as far back as he can remember. You can find him on Twitter @Jordality and occasionally find him streaming on Twitch.tv/JojoTheNinjaGaming. You can also check out his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCExyOMK798p7mCXwSayD2hg.